PCMCIA

PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) is an industry standards group that promotes the former PC Card and current ExpressCard peripheral device interface form factors, which are targeted mainly towards laptop computers.

PC Card

The PCMCIA group's original specification was self named, and consequently products developed for this new form factor were referred to as PCMCIA devices. The PCMCIA body, in development of the 2nd version of the specification, changed the standard's name to "PC Card". However, despite name change, PC Card devices are still commonly referred to simply as being PCMCIA devices. Unfortunately, this can lead to a bit of confusion, especially when discussing the PCMCIA's later ExpressCard standard, if one is not aware or distinguishes between "PCMCIA, the standards body" and "PCMCIA, the misnomer for a PC Card device".

There were a number of different types of PC Card. In respect to their use for TV card devices, it is the CardBus type of PC Card that is of interest.